My Romance contains a selection of love songs
Mario Lanza sang on The
Mario Lanza Show in the early '50s, in addition to two RCA Victor recordings from 1956. The
Mario Lanza Show was a Sunday-evening CBS radio program that featured
Lanza and guests such as
Gisele MacKenzie singing with the Ray Sinatra Orchestra, led by
Frank Sinatra's second cousin.
Ray Sinatra is the conductor on all of the performances here except for the two 1956 recordings. The songs are studio recordings -- not live audience takes -- so the quality is as high as
Lanza's commercial recordings. The anthology isn't exclusively devoted to broadcast recordings, nor does it outwardly emphasize that aspect of the collection. Instead, it is designed to look like nothing more than a collection of love songs, which makes one wonder why
Lanza's biggest hit, "Be My Love," was not included. Nonetheless, the songs that are included are romantic, even thrilling, with
Lanza's powerful but subtle and well-controlled voice interpreting great songbook selections by Rodgers & Hart, Lerner & Loewe, and
Jerome Kern. Despite the noncommercial origin of most of the recordings, only "All the Things You Are" is previously unreleased. ~ Greg Adams